Accidentally Vegan TV: Nigella's Chickpeas



As I know I have mentioned before, this is my last quarter of grad school. One more month and I am officially finished! That being said, it's crunch-time for me, leaving me less time for cooking or for writing. So I am always pleased to find something blog-worthy that also takes only a little time to write about or to cook. Which brings me to today's post: Accidentally Vegan TV on YouTube and a clip from this past March featuring Nigella. This one caught my eye because I ADORE chickpeas. I am always looking for something new to do with them. Plus, I also love cooking with sherry. And I can't deny there's something very sexy about the way Nigella describes how the cumin seeds "give a certain earthy perfume to the room." I do love her accent.


I encourage you to watch this short clip and try out Nigella's recipe for yourself. I made a few modifications, as I am prone to do with most recipes. I didn't have any cream sherry, so I used dry sherry. I also didn't have garlic oil, so I started with 2 cloves of minced garlic in olive oil. And I also added in about a quarter cup of chopped red onion. I cooked this with the cumin seed before adding the chickpeas, and then I cooked the chickpeas until they were soft, probably a bit longer than she did.


Also, I didn't have any arugula (aka "rocket"), so I used baby kale instead. And once everything was finished cooking, I stirred in 1 teaspoon of salt with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice for a little added flavor. It turned out to be a fantastic dish--and, not only was it easy to make, it was pretty inexpensive and had a lot of flavor. Delicious, fast, and inexpensive! This recipe's a definite keeper. I would also say it's worth it to go out and buy the cumin seeds if you don't have any. I am not always a huge cumin fan, but there's something really great about the seeds that I preferred to the powder or ground cumin--the flavor was somehow fresher, lighter, more complementary than overpowering, as cumin can sometimes be. And Nigella was also right about how it made the room smell earthy and nice.

Comments